New Delhi: The iconic ‘Dancing Girl’ of Mohenjo-Daro has become a subject of controversy yet again. This time, it is because of the figure’s depiction in an NCERT textbook for Class 9. According to a report in The Indian Express, the sculpture of a naked girl now appears with her torso covered.
The 4500-year-old bronze statuette, which was excavated from the Hargreaves area of Mohenjo-Daro in 1926, is one of the most well-known figurines from the Indus Valley Civilisation. It depicts a naked girl, who is only wearing bangles and a necklace with three pendants. And this is the way the figurine has been introduced to school students through NCERT textbooks for about 25 years, until now.
In the new Class 9 Art textbook, the NCERT has masked the torso of the ‘Dancing Girl’, hiding her features, the report added.
Earlier too, the ‘Dancing Girl’ has stoked debates over its naked appearance, with attempts made to censor or reimagine it.
In 1997, BJP leaders objected to the inclusion of a photo of the naked ‘Dancing Girl’ in a diary produced by the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation. According to then-BJP MLA Purnima Sethi, the picture of the artefact could have a “bad influence” on children.
“The theme of the diary symbolizes 50 years of Indian independence. If they had to show dancers, they could have shown depictions of dance from our different regions, such as Kuchipudi and Bharat Natyam. But a picture of a naked woman carries with it a completely different connotation. If our children and youth are exposed to such works, it will not have a good influence,” Sethi had said.
Other BJP members too had protested saying that including the “naked” photo was “not in good taste”.
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‘Sanskari’ Dancing Girl
The Dancing Girl made headlines again in 2017 when a research paper published by the Indian Council of Historical Research in the Hindi journal Itihaas claimed that the figurine was Hindu Goddess Parvati.
In the paper, titled ‘Vedic Sabhyata Ka Puratatva (Archaeology of Vedic Civilisation)’, author Thakur Prasad Verma, who taught at the Banaras Hindu University, said that the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation worshiped Shiva, and “where there is Shiva, there should be Shakti”.
In May 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the mascot of the International Museum Expo 2023, inspired by the bronze Dancing Girl. However, the statue appeared in a new avatar — fully clothed, and with a fairer skin tone.
The mascot drew criticism over what some saw as “whitewashing” of the figure. Social media users even said that the statue was given a new “sanskari look” by the Ministry of Culture.
A PIB press release described the mascot as “a contemporized version of the Dancing Girl made of wood in the Chennapatnam art style.”